Rules and laws developed to govern community members

	Navigation Background Information Lesson Plans Helpful Links Back to Homepage Introduction Through the Monkey King stories, we can learn a lot about the Social and Political order of ancient china. Traditional Chinese society is one that is built on “order.” To understand its culture, we must understand its order.

Background Information

1. Social Order in Chinese Society
2. Political Order and Government in Ancient China
3. A Snapshot of the Political Structure of Modern China

Social Order in Chinese Society

Traditional Chinese society is built on “order.” Social order is crucial in almost every aspect of life. In governing relationships, this can be seen in the “heavenly society,” with Emperor Jade (the God ruling the heaven) and his ministers; in human society, with the emperor who claims himself as “the son of heaven” and his cabinet; and in the hell realm, ruled by Yanwang with the help of the xiaogui (small ghosts).

Traditionally, family life has always been extremely important to Chinese culture, as the Chinese have tended to live in large family units. Relationships within families are very formal in traditional China. And there is a clear order within the family, with the father having the most power. Traditionally, disobeying parents was considered unacceptable.

In addition, the relationships between masters and disciples, teachers and students, were also very formal and followed a certain order. This is obvious in the story “Journey to the West.” The Monkey King is the disciple that Guan Yin (Kwan-yin) Buddha assigned to Xuanzang; therefore, even if sometimes Xuanzang misunderstood Wu Kong (name given by Xuanzang to the Monkey King) or even punished him wrongly, Wu Kong is still expected to respect and follow his master. Interestingly, in the “White Bone Demon” story, Wu Kong killed the demon three times when it changed itself into an old man, an old woman and a young girl. Xuanzang didn’t believe that they were demons and drove off Wu Kong for his violence against naïve people. Wu Kong was very sad but he went back to his birthplace and became the Monkey King again. However, when Xuanzang was in danger, he still left his enjoyable forest life and went back to accompany his master to continue on the journey.

In China, order is not only seen in human relations, but also in traditional architecture, art, rituals and ceremonies. The Forbidden City in Beijing is a very good example of the concept of order.

Almost all great thinkers in Chinese history talked about the importance of order. Here are some examples:

Confucianism
The founder of Confucianism, Master Kong (K'ung, Confucius, 551-479 B.C.) lived in a time of social and moral chaos, when common values were generally rejected or simply disregarded. In the ethos of uncertainty and fear created by warlords, Confucianism flourished and eventually transformed Chinese society with its values and dominated it for thousands of years. Since Confucius saw a sharp difference between the disunity and lack of harmony that existed in this chaotic society as opposed to the harmony and orderliness of nature, his philosophy sought to consciously restore primary set values and norms.

Politically, he insisted on strict social stratification to maintain public order, and contended moral cultivation and opposed tyranny. The main ethical feature he advocated was benevolence, called ren in Chinese.

Blessings result when you respond to Heaven by creating order; misfortune results when you respond to it with disorder.
XunZi (c. 213 BCE), a follower of Confucius

Taoism
Taoists approached the concept of order from a different angle. Taoism is a Way of life, often symbolized as a River. The Tao is the natural order of things. It is a force that flows through every living and sentient object, as well as through the entire universe.

The founders of Taoism, Laozi (Lao Tsu) and Zhuangzi, also living at a time of social disorder and great religious skepticism, developed the notion of the Dao (Tao - way or path) as the origin of all creation and the force—unknowable in its essence but observable in its manifestations—that lies behind the functions and changes of the natural world. They saw in Dao and nature the basis of a spiritual approach to living. This, they believed, was the answer to the burning issue of the day: What is the basis of a stable, unified, and enduring social order?

The order and harmony of nature, they said, was far more stable and enduring than either the power of the state or the civilized institutions constructed by human learning.

Legalism
Han Fei Tzu (280-233 BCE), a prince of Han, was a leading philosopher of the legalist tradition in China. The legalist school rejected Confucianism and Taoism, arguing that laws and their strict enforcement were what was needed for social harmony and a well-run state. In rejecting the past, it focused on the need for a government to demonstrate concrete results rather than to gain plaudits by following tradition. This is a rather undemocratic and extreme way of keeping social order.

Political Order and Government in Ancient China

Early Chinese rulers promoted the idea that they ruled by the Mandate of Heaven. The Chinese later expanded this idea to explain the dynastic cycle: When rulers became weak or corrupt, the Chinese believed Heaven withdrew its support and gave it to another ruler.

The 3000 years of Chinese history is a history of power centralization. From early dynasties Shang and Zhou to Tang, Song, and the last ones Ming and Qing, the power was gradually centralized to the emperor. The emperor claimed to have the Mandate of Heaven, which legitimized him to have the absolute power over all resources in his territory. The Mandate of Heaven also legitimized the emperor to pass it on to his offspring.

Another important political system in ancient China is the civil servants system. In finding ways to establish order in its society, one of the Han Dynasty’s apparently successful techniques was to bring wisdom into the government. Liu Bang (Han empire’s first ruler), though uneducated himself, had seen the need for educated men in governing the state. However, not until the Sui dynasty was the scholar-official examination system established. It lasted more than 1200 years, until the end of the last dynasty. Ancient China’s civil servants also came to be known as scholar-officials. As early as the 5th century B.C., Chinese philosophers taught that officials of the highest state should be men of moral integrity and intellectual capacity, and not necessarily of noble birth. Thus, a man from a poor family could still become a high official. At first, the exam required only that applicants be able to read the work of Confucius. Several centuries later the exam grew in sophistication. During the Tang Dynasty, for example, there were different categories of exams for different positions in the government. This examination system is of interest to historians insofar as it demonstrated the importance of scholarship to the political world in Ancient China. At that time few societies around the world could lay claim to having as advanced a political system as this.

A snapshot of modern China political structure

Lesson Plans

Helpful Links

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  Society and Culture- Family Organization